The prospect of billions of dollars in online advertising revenue? It makes strange bedfellows.
Joining others lobbying to cram ads into the spaces between TV channels, Google and Microsoft are advising on a massive US database that will list nationally available TV frequencies.
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white space needs a pilot

I suppose 'white space' is but a step towards 'cognitive radio' , i.e. thinking & aware radio. This has the small technical problem that a box listens .............& thinks "OK, frequency empty!"............then starts transmitting data, but it might not be hearing a faraway weak signal with which it has just started interfering.

'Super-duper whitespace-detecting equipment' can only detect the local RF energy environment and yet still potentially screw up somebody else's service. Hence real cognitive is considering using a dedicated pilot channel for each and everything to share an online status map and negotiate the white-space frequency/power level/local policy allocations considering the far-end situation as well.

This googoo database can provide a temporary solution until cognitive radio CR is solved/implemented.